Rumsfeld Says Iraqi Forces Improving (yeah, the ones they pay directly)

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - U.S.-trained Iraqi troops, faulted for ineffective fighting in previous clashes with insurgents, made a "generally pretty good" showing in the Fallujah offensive, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

~snip~

At a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference, Rumsfeld said it was too early to know how soon the Iraqi forces will be ready to take full responsibility for security, allowing the 138,000 U.S. troops to go home.

Appearing with Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was hopeful that a successful Iraqi election to choose a national assembly, scheduled for Jan. 30, would take some steam out of the insurgency.


Myers said the Iraqi situation after the January elections might prove analogous to what he said happened in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in the weeks after its presidential election in October


~snip~

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=693&e=10&u=/ap/20041124/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_us_military

Myers is hopeful...cuz just the other day he brought up the prospects of a civil war after the elections. JMO, but there seems to be a civil war today.

[young_at_heart]

1. I want to know......how can he live with himself?

Our young people are dying because???? Bush and Rumsfeld can tell me over and over that the world is better off without Saddam and I don't feel one bit better about our invasion.

[VegasWolf]

2. Don'cha worry, Mr. Prez, the vote will happen on time! I'll stake

my life on it.

[Porcupine]

3. Almost as good as the ARVN!!!

That's the Army Republic of Veit Nam. Worked real well.

[happyslug]

4. Actually like the Hmong and other hill tribes in Vietnam

The reports I keep reading keep saying the Iraqi Forces fighting are KURDS not ARABS. The Kurds are like the Hill Tribes in Vietnam a persecuted minority who now have a chance to get back at their persecutors AND establish themselves as an independent Country. Like the Hill Tribes, once we pull out (and we will sooner or later) will be attacked as traitors by the rest of the Iraqis (just like the Hmong were treated by the Vietnamese once we pulled out of Vietnam).

While I foresee that future Crime against Humanity (for the Kurds are falling right into the same trap the Hmong fell into in Vietnam, listening to some Foreigners telling them what they will win if they fight for the Foreigners) the purpose of this thread is the effectiveness of the Iraqi National Guard.

The Iraqi National Guard has been effective recently for we are using almost exclusively only those Iraqi National Guard Units made up of Kurds. It is the KURDS who are being effective fighters in this war. The problem is there are NOT enough Kurds in Iraq to control all of Iraq (and I will NOT get into what the Turks will do about the US arming Kurds, remember 75% of all Kurds live in Turkey NOT Iraq, and the Turks are FIGHTING the Kurds in Turkey).

Sooner or later the US has to go back to trying to used Shiite and Sunni Arab as Soldiers. So far the US has failed to keep enough Arabs in the Iraqi National Guard. Whenever fighting starts the Arabs disappear (or worse join the Resistance movement).

Thus do not view the recent reports of the effectiveness of the Iraqi National Guard as real progress in the fighting level of the Iraqi National Guard. The Kurds (like the Hill tribes of Vietnam) have always had a good reputations as soldiers, but like the Hill Tribes of Vietnam the Kurds do NOT have sufficient population base to be an effective occupation force in Iraq. Thus the US has to recruit from the Arab Population, a population (like the Vietnamese Population) that opposed the US being in their Country. The Iraqi National Guard will return to its reputation that it will fight just like ARVN did.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. He is trying to keep up a confident tone

That bastard is the most evil of the bunch. In time he will be on the run as the number one war criminal of all time, ahead of all the rest in before him in history.